Town Square

Being the 15th May I was thinking about aday.org, mentioned in the BlipFoto Blog. I thought I'd take one photo every hour, on the hour, throughout the day to visualise a day in my life. It was an interesting experiment, though I don't think very fruitful, whether I have anything to update onto aday.org remains to be seen.

Anyway, back to BlipFoto. We managed to get out for coffee later this afternoon. Although it was sunny when we left home, it started raining whilst we were in Nero. Walking home in the aftermath of the heavy showers, I had an idea. I have published various scenes of Stratford in the past, most of which show it off as tourists imagine, historic buildings, pretty river, theatre, parks. But there is another side. As with every other town in the country, Stratford is suffering from the recession; or in our case from an out of town property developer. This photo is taken in Town Square, originally called Bell Court. It was 'developed' by pushing out existing businesses and upping rents to the extent where more and more shops are closing. All the shops shown here are empty. We have a promise of re-development, cinema, restaurants, etc. but no sign of movement, just an area becoming empty and sad.

This is the other side of Stratford-upon-Avon.